Always

by Jude Deveraux

  “It’s all right,” she answered, feeling his embarrassment. “I know how it feels to be alone.”

  “Yes, I think that’s part of my attraction to you. Darci,” he said softly, “I’ve known you but hours, yet I feel a kinship with you. If you were to stay here—”

  Reaching up, she put her fingertips over his lips. “I know. I’ve always known. You and I could…we could come to mean something to each other. But no, I can’t stay. You’re not my Adam and your daughters aren’t my children. I’m sure I could come to love all of you, but there’s…” She hesitated.

  “Yes, I understand. We would be substitutes for other people,” Adam said after a moment, then he stepped away from her. “But if you find that you can’t return, you’ll always have a home with us, and it will be on any terms you want.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered. In the next instant the door to the icehouse flew open and the moment was broken.

  “Ready?” Jack asked. “I think we should go before Nokes shows up. From what his workmen said about him, he sounds like someone I don’t want to meet. What?!” he said when Darci and Adam started laughing.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “I HAD A WONDERFUL TIME TONIGHT,” LAVENDER said, closing her eyes for a moment in memory. “The miners sang songs and I danced to the music.” She was back in her tight clothes again, her waist corseted, her legs hidden under pounds of fabric. If it had been left to her and Jack, she would have stayed in her costume, but Adam was so uncomfortable with her near nudity that she’d given in and put her clothes back on.

  As for Darci, she’d refused to remove her trousers and put that dreadful corset back on. Between the comfortable clothes and their success in the tunnels, she was feeling wonderful. With each passing moment, she seemed to be becoming clearer about who she was and who this man sitting near her was. He was not her husband. For a while there, under the bed, she’d wavered, but someone somewhere had helped her. That she wasn’t alone had given her new confidence and new energy.

  “I wish I could have seen you dance,” she said to Lavender, smiling, but her smile hid what she was thinking. Now what happens? she wondered. What happens to Lavender? Had tonight’s adventure been the real reason that Lavender’s spirit had followed Jack’s into the twentieth century?

  Darci had a thought that made her draw in her breath sharply. What if it was Jack’s leaving that made Lavender jump off the roof? What if she’d spent an exciting evening with Jack, then after he left to go back to his own time, Lavender was faced with a lifetime of living with John Marshall, a man she had been intending to break away from?

  “Did someone walk over your grave?” Lavender asked when Darci shuddered.

  “No, just thinking. Tell me what you didn’t like about John before yesterday.”

  “Dull,” Lavender said, looking at Jack with adoring eyes. “He was so dull. Nothing in the least adventurous about him. So very proper at all times.” She was sipping black tea while the rest of them had glasses of champagne. That Adam had refused to allow Lavender more booze was another thing that made Darci realize that this man wasn’t her Adam. Her Adam had a wicked sense of humor. And he knew when to relax and have fun. And he would never have taken away a person’s happiness in achievement as this Adam was doing to Lavender.

  You’re welcome to him, Diana, Darci said to herself an hour after they returned.

  “How could any man be dull around you?” Jack asked, his eyes glittering for a moment, then he gave a fake yawn. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think I need to get some rest. It’ll be dawn in a few hours.”

  Darci knew that if the house were quiet, Jack and Lavender would be in the same bed within seconds. After all, they thought this was to be their wedding day, so why not spend the night together?

  She searched her mind for a reason why they should all stay awake. “But we can’t go to bed now. Jack, did you forget that this is not only Lavender’s wedding day but it’s also her birthday? We must celebrate.”

  When Jack looked blank, she glared at him, willing him to remember that when Lavender was in Chrissy’s body, she’d said she was being married on her birthday.

  “Oh, right,” Jack said. “I forgot completely. And I don’t have a present for you.”

  Lavender looked from Darci to Jack, then to Adam. “Tell me, Mr. Drayton, what do you think of a husband and a sister-in-law-to-be who can’t remember your birthday?”

  “I’d say that you should be able to choose your own gift. I have some lovely horses that would be very nice for a young lady. Shall I charge him double for them?”

  All four of them were smiling. “Perhaps a trip,” Lavender said. “To somewhere divinely exotic. New Zealand, maybe.”

  “Yes, that sounds nice,” Jack said. “What about you, little sister? Like to go to New Zealand?”

  Part of Darci wanted to play the game, but another part wanted to remind Jack that they had to return to their own time. Giving enjoyment won out. “New Zealand sounds heavenly. A Victorian world that hasn’t been explored. No fast food. No WMDs that no one can find.”

  “Just head hunters,” Jack said. “And diseases we haven’t known for centuries.”

  “Actually,” Adam said, “I’d like to talk to you two about some things. Perhaps you could tell me of this assembly machine.”

  “Assembly line,” Jack said. “It’s a simple process, really. It just means that—”

  Lavender sat up straighter in her seat and said loudly, “I’d like to talk about the fact that today is not my birthday.” There was some petulance in her tone. It was obvious that she wasn’t going to give up her time with Jack to let him talk about an “assembly machine.”

  “Not—?” Darci began.

  “Not—?” Jack began.

  “Is this significant?” Adam asked.

  Darci and Jack looked at each other with wide eyes.

  “Whose birthday is today?” Darci asked, looking intently at Lavender. Her voice rose. “Who has a birthday on the twelfth of June?”

  “I have no idea,” Lavender answered. “No one I know. I wouldn’t have scheduled my wedding on the birthday of anyone close to me. In fact, we wanted to be married last week, but my cousin’s birthday was that week so we changed the date. As for my birthday, it’s in April. Jack, don’t you remember what you gave me this year?” Her eyes were teasing. “You haven’t mixed me up with one of your other girls, have you?”

  Both Jack and Darci blinked at her, unable to understand what they were hearing. They had a great deal to say to each other, but they knew they could say nothing in front of Lavender.

  Adam looked from one to the other and seemed to understand their dilemma. “If Miss Shay and I are no longer needed, I think we should be off to bed. Besides, a bride shouldn’t see so much of the groom on her wedding day. You’ll be tired of each other before the honeymoon begins.”

  “I could never get tired of Jack,” Lavender said as she suppressed a yawn. “But I must admit that I’m exhausted. Drinking for the first time in my life, then dancing while standing on top of a buckboard…truly an incredible day. By the way, Jack, my dearest, how much money did we collect?”

  “Nearly two hundred dollars and half a shoebox full of garnets.”

  “How wonderful,” Lavender said, her eyes sleepy. “Good night, Mr. Drayton. Good night, my dear sister. Good night, my beloved Jack, my almost husband.”

  There were murmurs of undying love from Jack, and courteous responses from Adam as Lavender went up the stairs.

  “Yes, good night,” Darci said distractedly. She was still thinking about what she’d heard. She’d never missed her powers as much as she did now. If she had her abilities she could have figured out what was going on a long time ago.

  “Mrs. Montgomery,” Adam said formally, “may I see you for a moment?”

  “Don’t you leave,” Darci said under her breath to Jack. “Don’t move an inch and do not slip upstairs and get in bed with Lavender.” Louder,
she said, “Jack, you and I need to brainstorm and figure out what’s going on here.”

  “Brainstorm,” Adam said, turning the word over in his mouth. “What an excellent word, and I think I can guess its meaning.”

  As Darci followed Adam into the library, her mind was on other things. How could they have been so stupid as to assume they knew what had gone on after Lavender died? And what did it mean that Lavender’s birthday wasn’t today? The angry spirit that had been around Jack had said her birthday was on her wedding day.

  “Darci,” Adam said, his voice low and familiar, all formality gone. “I want to say…” Looking down at her, he smiled. “You’re thinking of your mystery, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. You see, I think Lavender might die on her wedding day.”

  “Ah, I see. If Jack leaves her, she will die. If not all at once, then slowly. Like you and me.”

  He had her attention now. “Like us,” she said. “Without…”

  “The other half of us,” he said softly. “You and I aren’t whole people.” He lifted his hand as though he might tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, but he didn’t. Instead, he straightened his back. “I’m not sure I’ll see you in the morning. I don’t know that I can bear to say good-bye. You remind me too much of what I’ve lost. But now I have a question to ask you.”

  “Yes?”

  “What did you pry out of Fonty’s bed?”

  Smiling, she reached down inside her shirt to pull it out. She could feel Adam’s eyes on her, feel his blush, but she could also feel his interest.

  Holding out her hand, she slowly opened her fist to show him what she’d found. In the carriage ride back, she’d felt the object through her clothes so she knew what it was, but she hadn’t yet looked at it. She’d planned to do that when she was alone. But Adam had been with her, had risked his life to find the object, so he deserved to see it.

  In the palm of her hand was a crucifix. But as prepared as she thought she was, she still drew in her breath. It was exquisite—and old. Maybe even very, very old. The suffering figure of Christ was so detailed she could see the veins on his forehead even though the whole crucifix was only about an inch and a half tall.

  “May I?” Adam asked and Darci handed it to him. He took it to the fireplace where the light was better and stared at it, then he withdrew a magnifying glass from a desk drawer and studied it. “Exquisite,” he whispered. “I don’t think Nokes put it in the bed frame, so it must have been put there by someone else.”

  “For me to find,” Darci said softly. “And so it won’t be found many years from now by a woman of great evil. At least I assume it was one of the objects she had. I was told she had many.” Reaching into her pocket, she withdrew the little ceramic man and handed it to Adam.

  Holding the objects, one in each hand, he said, “They still vibrate, but not as strongly as they did when we were under the bed together.”

  “Maybe they were just so glad to see each other that they became very excited,” Darci said.

  “Maybe so,” Adam answered, chuckling. “So what do you plan to do with them? Can you take them back with you?”

  “If I go,” she said. “If everything isn’t messed up because we thought someone was Lavender who isn’t, that is.” She shrugged. “I don’t know what will happen. When, if, I don’t know. But I plan to carry the box and the key that’s inside that man with me every second today. If it looks like things are going wrong, I’ll open the box and maybe Jack and I will go back to our own time. Or maybe we’ll go back to the year 601. Maybe we’ll be trampled by dinosaurs. Or maybe we’ll find ourselves on a spaceship.”

  Adam was grinning at her. “Pardon my selfishness, but, if for no other reason, I wish you could stay so I could hear every word about your world.”

  “I’d like to hear about yours, too,” she said wistfully, then recovered herself. “Do you mind if I get the key out now?”

  “Shall I break him for you?”

  Darci eyes twinkled. “Be my guest.”

  Adam put the little ceramic man on the stone hearth and gently tapped it with the iron poker. It didn’t break. He hit it again, this time harder. It didn’t so much as chip. Adam whacked the man with enough force to shatter it—but it didn’t hurt it in any way.

  He looked at Darci in astonishment.

  “I know,” she said, laughing. “My father and I tried everything before he decided to wash the little man.” There was a vase of flowers on a side table. She removed the flowers, then dropped the man into the water. There was a sizzle and the outer covering vanished, leaving in the vase a very ordinary-looking key.

  Adam laughed. “Nokes could have owned the man for a century and never found out what was inside it. To my knowledge he’s never washed himself nor anything around him.”

  “I’ll never forget those feet,” she said. Putting her hand on Adam’s arm, she was suddenly serious.

  “There’s no way he could find out that you were the one who took his good luck piece, is there?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “But he must know that you know the combination to the safe.”

  “Even in our time we have people who make a profession of opening safes,” Adam said, amused. “I have an honorable reputation so I don’t think he’ll suspect me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “And if I’m not, what will you do?”

  “I’ll—” There was nothing she could do. She was merely a small woman without any extraordinary powers of any kind. “I don’t know what I could do,” she said at last.

  Darci took the key out of the water and dried it on her shirttail. “I think I’ll keep this with me. You don’t have a cord that I could use to tie it around my neck, do you?”

  “I’ll find something and I’ll send it to you in the morning,” he said, taking the key from her. “What do I do with this?” He held up the beautiful little crucifix to the light. “I think it’s Italian, no later than the fourteenth century. It’s quite the finest workmanship I’ve ever seen.”

  “Simone’s son, Tom, works for Jack, and Tom’s going to bury something Simone gave me by a church that I know survives the Civil War. Could you get Tom to show you where he buried the egg? I’ll find both things after I return to my own time. If I get back, that is.” She glanced toward the door, wanting to talk to Jack about what they were going to do next.

  “Yes, of course,” Adam said, staring at her as though he meant to memorize her face. He stepped away from her. “I’ll bid you good night, then. It’ll be dawn soon and I know you’ll leave. I want to say, Mrs. Montgomery, that tonight has been…” He seemed to run out of words.

  Darci turned away from his intense stare. She didn’t want to do the same thing to him.

  After a moment, she looked back at him. “Me, too. I was frightened every minute we were in the tunnels, but in the end it worked out well. I don’t know how to thank you, and I will always remember what you’ve done.”

  He seemed to have recovered himself as he smiled. “I ask two things of you. One is that if you do return, I want you to explore what that box and key can do, and, if you can, I ask that you use that…what was it? That healing ball?”

  “Touch of God.”

  “Yes, if it exists—please excuse my cynicism—but if it exists, and if you have powers, and if—” He waved his hand. “If it is possible, please let me see my wife again. You have revived my memories of her to the point of pain.”

  “Yes, I understand,” she said, stepping away from him. She feared that he might try to pull her into his arms. “And the second request?”

  “Only that you remember that if you should find yourself stranded here, my door is always open to you.”

  “Thank you,” she said, then stood stiffly while they struggled with what else there was to say to each other. In the end, Adam said nothing, nor did she. He gave her a little bow from the neck, then quickly left the room.

  Darci stood alone in the beautiful library and to
ld herself that she would not cry. Adam Drayton had made her feel closer to her husband than she had since he’d disappeared.

  Squaring her shoulders, she went back to the parlor where Jack awaited her. “Lavender?” she asked.

  “In bed. Alone,” Jack said with great regret in his voice, then he turned to business. “Any idea of what’s going on?”

  Darci sat down hard on a wing chair and stared at the fire. “None at all. When we talked to that angry spirit around you, she said she was Lavender Shay and that you two were going to get married, on the twelfth of June, 1843. So that’s today. She also said it was her birthday.”

  “And that her father was ill.”

  “Oh, right. You had to wait for something because her father was so ill.”

  “The honeymoon,” Jack said. “She said we had to postpone the honeymoon because her father was ill.”

  “But Lavender’s father is fine,” Darci said. “I don’t understand what’s going on, do you?” When she looked at Jack, she saw that his face was as puzzled as she felt.

  “No idea whatever. Unless she was lying.”

  “Which one?”

  “The spirit. Do they lie? Can they lie?” Jack asked.

  “Sure. They’re just people without bodies. Just because they get rid of their earthly flesh doesn’t make them angels.”

  “If this weren’t so serious I’d laugh at that.” Putting his hand on the mantel, he stared into the fire. “How can I protect Lavender if I don’t know what’s going on?”

  “Is there another woman who thinks she has a right to marry you?”

  “Every one I’ve ever been to bed with,” Jack said with cockiness.